Once-Invincible 'Governator' Dips in Polls

[wtmusic]

SAN FRANCISCO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rode an extraordinary wave of popularity in his first year, thanks to a blend of celebrity, political smarts, and a bit of rookie luck. But the so-called Governator now faces so much criticism that many wonder whether he might be a mere mortal after all.

The Republican governor who negotiated tough agreements with Democrats, charmed legislators with visits to his smoking tent and met rapturous crowds at shopping malls across California has hit a sophomore slump, marked by a series of actions that his adversaries are calling naive and even hypocritical.

His state budget proposal relies on $6 billion in borrowing, despite a campaign pledge to end such borrowing. He angered teachers by refusing to give about $2 billion in unanticipated revenues to schools. He is raking in contributions from business interests despite a pledge to end the influence of special-interest money in Sacramento. And his bipartisan image has been tarnished by a government restructuring plan that takes aim at Democratic constituencies like public employees and teachers.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050130/ap_on_re_us/california_politics

[senseandsensibility]

1. Thanks for posting this!

:-)

[Kerrytravelers]

2. Bye bye... asshole

As a CA resident, I hate this idiot. Thank you for the link. I jst sent it out to all those on my email listing.

[blue agave]

6. As a CA resident, and a state employee

I hate this idiot double.

Freepers at work have still not seen the light yet. They may acknowledge that he is biting their ass, but anyone that hates dems is still alright with them.

[realFedUp]

25. I found out what blue agave is made into...tequila

Watched the Food network and Sammy Hager's
Cabo Wabo tequila made from blue agave.

Ya never know what you're going to pick
up day to day...:-)

and yeah, recall the gropenator!
Salud!

[wtmusic]

7. Yer welcome

Hey, what's this in my mailbox, TA? ;-)

[leesa]

3. His popularity was totally fabricated by the media & the public bought it

Just like with Bush...say a thousand times that he's the best thing since white bread and gullible Americans who have been spoon fed marketing propaganda all their lives will chow it down.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. I was disappointed in his State of the State address

I don't hate Schwarzenegger the way I hate Bush, so I get no sense of Schadenfreude when he falls flat on his face. I live in California, I know the state has a big budget mess and it has to be fixed; it doesn't matter by whom.

Schwarzenegger's State of the State messege had a few good broad strokes, but underneath it, one asked: Where's the beef? There wasn't any.

Shwarzenegger will be hard to beat in 2006, but we'll have to wonder if we can't do better. We still have a big mess to clean up.

[not systems]

5. Governor credit card...

he borrowed 14 billion dollars to prop up his image.

That is not idea of good governance.

[Mz Pip]

8. I think he's finding this

Governating thing a bit harder than he originally thought. He's managed to piss off everyone - the RW Repugs who somehow deluded themselves into believing he was just like them - to the Dems who hated Davis and thought they would be getting somewhat of an improvement.

Our budget is still a disaster.
He signed domestic partners legislation that threw Lou Sheldon into a tizzy.
He is prohibiting people from importing drugs from Canada.
He manages to diss the people he needs to get anything accomplished.

Still, unlike Reagan, he hasn't tear gassed Berkeley. It could be worse.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[proud patriot]

9. You see he just fucked with our schools a big big NO NO here

:thumbsdown:

[wtmusic]

20. No kidding

I think it's time to start the recall petition :(

[MontecitoDem]

10. This is good news but there's so much work to do!

More from the article:

" A new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that while 60 percent of the state's residents still approve of the job he is doing, he has lost considerable ground among Democrats and Independents, who together form the vast majority of the state's voters. Some 49 percent of Democrats now say they disapprove of his job performance, while 43 percent approve. And his disapproval rating among Independents has doubled since last year, from 18 to 32 percent."


SIXTY percent approval rating. And 43% democrats!!!

We've got to get this race up and running now, imo. We've only got a year and a half.

[GetTheRightVote]

11. I would love to see Arnold out of CA territory

:kick:

[zulchzulu]

12. Ahnuld tought he vus in da moofies againt...itz haddah to face reality

Ven you have numbuz dat are outta cintrol vith the Enron and the neocons and the proposition 13 staringk down yah back, you ah in deep shit.

Vhat Ahnuld sholt haff done is to let the dumb doggie vin the gobernator seat. Ahnuld vill be banging less chicks dis vey.

[Clarkie1]

13. I'm a member of the CTA, and at one time thought Arnold was reasonable

However, this quote from my association president sums it up for me as well:

"Compared to the man last year, I've discovered a new person who the kids and teachers of California can't trust," said CTA President Barbara Kerr.

[JoshK]

14. His "campaign" was 100% substance-free, & all the papers

here gave him over-the-top publicity. They practically urged people to vote for this idiot, just because he's a movie star (ahem -- a PRO BUSINESS movie star, that is).

He was willing to show up for one (of 3 or so) debate only -- at which he made a crude indirect threat to shove Arianna Huffington's head into a toilet bowl, and at which it was smashingly obvious that he had no specific plan at all for fixing the budget (the whole alleged point of the recall). Peter Camejo was about 1000 times more knowledgeable on all the issues, yet the baboon with the big muscles won by an enormous landslide.

I hope he's revealed for the phony that he is.

[OneTwentyoNine]

19. Yeah,I remember ALL the TV coverage of a total political IDIOT

He went into that same crap "terminator" mode everytime a camera was pointed at him. Never said a DAMN thing that showed he understood or was even remotely informed about the issues.

God....

[Kipepeo]

15. Great article on Bush and Arnold

LA Weekly ran a column recently on "George an the Governator: So why do Californians despise Bush and embrace Arnold?" that is a must read: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/08/powerlines-meyerson.php

I myself has been at a loss to understand people I know who hate Bush but voted for Arnold. Most of them don't know anything about what he's done in office and none of them are aware of how similar he is to Bush (or don't want to believe it).

excerpt:

Lest anyone entertained doubts, now we know just whom our governor considers a special interest. No, it’s not agribusiness, which has contributed generously to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s coffers, nor the state’s Chamber of Commerce, which gave the guv a 100 percent rating last year.

It’s kids. Kids without money. Kids without parents who hold down a steady job.

I don’t mean to sound such a creaky Dickensian chord here, but the governor has just presented the most Dickensian budget the state has seen since Frank Merriam was governor back in the ’30s. In order to close the state’s chronic budget deficit — which he created roughly half of by rolling back motor-vehicle registration fees — Schwarzenegger proposed this week a budget balanced at the expense of children in poverty. He proposed cutting welfare grants by 6.5 percent, which would reduce the monthly check to a family of three from $723 to $676, and eliminating the annual cost-of-living increases in welfare benefits as well. Gives new meaning to the phrase "Kindergarten Cop," I suppose.

Arnold’s not entirely an inverse-ageist. To even things out, he also proposed a benefit freeze for the elderly poor and disabled. And for the working poor who take care of the elderly and disabled — that is, for the several hundred thousand home-health-care workers paid out of state funds — he proposed slashing their hourly wage from $10.10 to $6.75, the state minimum wage.

Read the rest: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/08/powerlines-meyerson.php

[EFerrari]

16. Ahnode is Enron with tanned musculature. He's got to go.

And I don't think anyone will take him on. Where's Godzilla when you need him?

[no_hypocrisy]

17. Not to mention AS is soliciting contributions from OUTSIDE OF

California in order to fund his "agenda", to take his proposals directly to "the people". Manipulation of the political process takes money.

[OneTwentyoNine]

18. Arnold's Cool and he's going to get a us a tax cut!!!

Exact words out of some ditzy blonde on one of the news networks on the voting day for the Governorship.

Jesus,I about beat my head against the wall as to how ANY voter can be so GD mis-informed.

[annabanana]

21. stardust has a SHORT shelf life.............................n/t

[gratuitous]

22. There's an opening here, California Democrats

Are you going to put up a solid opponent, or revert to business-as-usual party nonsense? Arnold benefited greatly from two things: The diffusion of focus on recall and election, and the plethora of candidates (real and imaginary) who came out of the woodwork to be on the ballot. It's not real surprising that once the recall of Gray Davis was in the bag, people voted for the name they knew best. Something similar happened in Minnesota when Jesse Ventura won in a three-way race. It doesn't take much to misdirect the electorate.

But in 2006, in a focused race with only two big names, Arnold won't be able to duck and dodge debates and issues, and will have an actual political record to defend. Don't be surprised if he decides sometime in the next 14 months that being a real politician isn't his cup of tea.

[LibDemAlways]

24. I'm thinking this, too.

Ahnold is a walking ego, and there's no way he'll be able to stay away from a movie set indefinitely. The clock is ticking and he'll want to get back before he's tapped to play The Terminator's father in a cameo.

[LibDemAlways]

23. Ahnold won because he promised to

repeal the increase in the vehicle license fee that had kicked in qutomatically under Davis. Since the one thing Californians of all political stripes have in common is their car, truck, SUV, etc., this was an incredibly popular idea, and it was just about the first thing he did after taking office.

Frankly, I'd have gladly paid the extra 200 I originally owed if it would have gone to education funding. We're still 44th in the nation, and probably sinking fast.

The parent bulletin sent home in my daughter's district this week has this from the superintendent:

"The children of California are not a
'special interest group' as the governor
so labeled them and we expect him to uphold
the law...."

Ahnold is trying to gut Proposition 98 which mandates that 40% of state revenues each year are a minimum level of funding for public education. He has stated that he will not return funds owed to the schools from last year ($1.4 billion) nor will he provide school with the funds owed this year ($2.3 billion).

People who selfishly voted for Ahnold were voting to screw their own kids.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

26. Life is not a movie

Arnold's termination is imminent.